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Every 1/2 second, you get 10 points. Every Balloon popped is 300 points. Collecting 20 balloons without letting any pass by will turn all the Balloons orange, and allow you to gain more points per balloon. Collecting another 20 Balloons without letting any get past the screen will make the balloons turn dark red and be worth even more points. Unlike later installments, if a Balloon passes the screen it will not revert to green. Occasionally a Giant Bubble will float up, and will give you 500 points when popped as well as freeze the screen. After you pass the first few groups of stationary Sparks, the Sparks will move up and down and even toward you at the start of clusters.

There is an internal scoreboard of 50 scores. After resetting or powering on for the first time, the scoreboard contains scores in increments of 500 points, up until 25,000 points. The Rank in the top right corner reflects the player's score within the table.

At the start, there will always be a definite, stationary structure of Sparks. It is always the same positions for the Sparks and the Balloons. After this point, the Spark and Balloon placement will be random, and there will occasionally be an area without any Sparks or Balloons.

The entire game is really based off of this mode, with some differences. Most differences are due to the Game & Watch limitations. In this version, every few phases a boss fight scene with Oiram Repus will begin. Also, there's a larger range of combo points for collecting all Balloons. There's a number of small islands scattered along the bottom of the screen, which the player can land on.

In Balloon Kid, the mode is exactly the same as the NES version, for the most part. The only notable difference is the background and the fact that the screen scrolls vertically. The Rank System is still intact, and so are most of the main mechanics. It should also be noted that the main game is much like Balloon Trip, but with more of a story and a set level design.

In this game, the mode is split into "Phases", like the main game, and the levels are more pre-set. At the end of every Phase, there is an island that can be landed on, though landing on it does not serve any purpose. As soon as the "Save" sign on the island comes on-screen, the next phase starts and the checkpoint is set.

The entire game is based off of Balloon Trip. However, this time the entire game is pre-set and only has a few small randomized areas. You play by sliding the stylus across the screen, and the speed and angle at which you do so determines where you fly. In this, the Balloon Birds appear in some levels.

In WarioWare: Smooth Moves, there was a microgame and an unlockable minigame where you play as a proportional version of the Balloon Fighter and fly across a 3D ocean, much like the NES version. You flap your arms to fly upward. The Fish and even Balloon Birds appear, both using 3D models that are made to be more "realistic". In the microgame version, the Balloon Fighter's appearance is more like the Famicom Box art's portrayal of him, with orange overalls and pink balloons, though the minigame version uses the red and blue coloration seen in the NES game. The main and only goal is to survive by avoiding Sparks. The microgame version only uses the Wii Remote, while the minigame version uses both the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk.

According to an interview with Satoru Iwata, the game's creator, Balloon Trip mode was actually created in the last three days of development for the NES version of Balloon Fight.

The absolute minimum of points is 70, due to that it takes 3.5 seconds to fall off the screen and get a game over by instantly hitting "Right" on the controller as soon as the game starts. This works because when you hit "Right", the character flips, and that is counted as a movement, which forces the platform to drop the player directly on the left side of the starting platform due to its nature.

In Balloon Fight-e, the card info calls the stationary Sparks seen in the beginning "Stars".